The Door
"The Door" is the fifth episode of the sixth season of Game of Thrones. It is the fifty-fifth episode of the series overall. It premiered on May 22, 2016. It was written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and directed by Jack Bender. Plot Sansa meets with an old friend now enemy. Sansa and Jon make battle plans. Arya is given another chance to prove herself, but is experiencing internal conflict. Jorah confesses a devastating secret to Daenerys. Tyrion meets with a dangerous Red Priestess, who shares information with Varys. Yara finds her rule tested. Bran discovers the origin of the White Walkers, while losing many loyal companions. Summary At the Wall Sansa Stark receives a message bearing the sigil of House Baelish asking her to a meeting in Mole's Town. Accompanied by Brienne, Sansa, angry, meets Petyr Baelish asking if he was aware what Ramsay Bolton was capable of. Baelish deflects, saying he has the knights of The Vale waiting at Moat Cailin to aid Sansa. She is mistrustful of him when he claims he had no idea of Ramsay's abusive treatment of her. She doubts Baelish's ability to protect her or even himself, threatening to have Brienne kill him. He says he'll do whatever she asks and Sansa tells him to leave and never come back for her. He obeys, but not before informing that her great-uncle Brynden Tully has recaptured Riverrun and recommending she seeks him out and the remaining loyal Tully forces. Sansa says she already has an army, her brother Jon Snow's army of wildlings. "Half-brother", Baelish corrects her as he walks away. In the Dothraki Sea Daenerys is unsure of what to do with Jorah, having banished him twice, with him returning twice, and saving her life twice. Jorah finally confesses his love for Daenerys, but also reveals his spreading greyscale infection, and says that this time, he needs to leave for good. He starts to leave and states his plan to take his own life when the greyscale envelops him, but Daenerys tearfully commands him to find a cure and come back to her side when she conquers Westeros. Jorah then departs while Daenerys and Daario Naharis lead the Dothraki horde back to Meereen. In Braavos The Waif continues to drill Arya, mocking her high-born origins. Jaqen H’ghar explains that the Faceless Men were slaves in Valyria before establishing the Free City of Braavos and the House of Black & White. Handing Arya a vial, Jaqen tells her an actress, Lady Crane, will be the next to receive the Many-Faced God’s “gift.” Arya enjoys the spectacle of the actors re-enacting the War of the Five Kings, playing Baratheons and Lannisters, but her pleasure ceases when her father, and his execution, are inaccurately caricatured. Arya sneaks into the dressing room to observe her target – the actress playing Cersei – who appears to be a clever, decent woman. Arya later shares with Jaqen her plan to poison Lady Crane’s rum, which no one else in the troupe drinks. Arya suspects that a jealous younger actress, Bianca, has commissioned the kill. Jaqen cuts her off, reminding her a servant does not question. In Meereen While the rulers of Meereen enjoy a tenuous peace, Tyrion reminds them of the need to convince the Meereenese that everything has been done with Daenerys's blessing, as the Masters could use Tyrion and Varys's foreign status against them to reclaim Slaver's Bay. To that end, Tyrion invites Kinvara, High Priestess of the Red Temple of Volantis, to negotiate spreading the word of Daenerys's accomplishments. To Tyrion's surprise, Kinvara appears to be highly accommodating in supporting Tyrion's goals, as she firmly believes that Daenerys is The Prince That Was Promised. Varys is more skeptical, being suspicious of any practitioners of magic, and points out that Melisandre had already declared Stannis Baratheon to be the Prince, only for him to be defeated twice. Kinvara says that while the Lord of Light has a plan, the humans following him do occasionally make errors. She then unnerves Varys by revealing that she knows Varys was emasculated by a "second-rate sorcerer" and offers to repeat the words he heard in the flames, and identify who it was that spoke. Kinvara then assures Tyrion that she will send the preachers and priests best suited to the task at hand. Category:Season 6 Episodes Category:Season 6 In the Iron Islands As the Kingsmoot is held, Yara Greyjoy is the first to lay claim to the Salt Throne. Yara argues that raiding the mainland is not enough to and that they need to use military force to teach the mainlanders a lesson. An Ironborn man challenges Yara's candidacy on the grounds that she is a woman and points out that her brother Theon Greyjoy has returned. After some hesitation, Theon endorses his older sister and urges the gathering to do the same; stressing that she is a warrior, a reaver, and an Ironborn. Many shout for Yara to be their Queen. Before they can crown Yara, Euron Greyjoy joins the gathering to lay claim to the Salt Throne. He openly mocks Theon for his military failures and emasculation before deriding Yara as a woman. Yara in turn accuses Euron of killing their King and her father Balon. To her surprise, Euron admits killing Balon but then defends his actions on the grounds that Balon was leading them to defeat in the North. When Euron states that his only regret is not killing Balon years earlier, he is met by resounding cheers from the crowd. Theon then counters that Euron had spent years gallivanting overseas while Yara was commanding Ironborn ships and men. Yara then suggests building a massive fleet to attack and make their mark on Westeros. In response, Euron announces that he also supports expanding the Ironborn fleet. Revealing a trick up his sleeve, he then proposes to marry Daenerys Targaryen and then carry her army and dragons back to Westeros. The Ironborn support Euron's plan and declare him king. The Drowned Men priest Aeron Greyjoy then leads Euron down to the sea to be baptized. During the drowning ceremony, however, Yara, Theon, and many of their loyalists flee the Iron Islands, taking the best of the Iron Fleet with them. During the baptism, Euron falls unconscious but is revived on the shore. Shortly later, he is crowned with the driftwood crown by his brother Aeron. After learning that his niece and nephew have fled with the best Ironborn ships, Euron calls on his followers to build their own ships so that he may pursue the pair and kill them. Beyond the Wall It is revealed that Leaf and the other Children of the Forest created the first White Walkers during their war against the First Men. Bran, Leaf, Hodor, and Meera are hiding with the Three-Eyed Raven. The White Walkers are able to find them after Bran is touched by The Night's King in a Warg dream. After being touched the White Walkers are able to also pass through the entrance of the root cave. After the Wights begin to swarm the cave they kill most of the Children of the Forest and Summer. The Three-Eyed Raven bid Bran farewell before being killed by the Night's King. In order for Bran to make it out, Leaf sacrifices herself to buy him some time. Bran must Warg as Hodor in order to hold the door, but he is able to do this while still being in a greendream. Meera repeatedly yells at Hodor to "hold the door" which Bran hears in his dream. As Hodor is holding the door in real time, Bran witnesses Hodor have a seizure as he is warged and begins screaming "hold the door", which he begins to slur and turn into "hodor", while a desperate Old Nan tries to aid him. Appearances First *Izembaro *"Joffrey Baratheon" actor *Lady Crane *"Eddard Stark" actor *Bobono *Bianca *Kinvara *Lord Rickard Stark Deaths * Three-eyed raven * Summer * White Walker * Leaf * Hodor Production Cast Starring *Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister *Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen *Kit Harington as Jon Snow *Aidan Gillen as Lord Petyr Baelish *Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth *Carice van Houten as Melisandre *Sophie Turner as Princess Sansa Stark *Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei *Maisie Williams as Princess Arya Stark *Conleth Hill as Varys *Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Prince Bran Stark *Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane *Alfie Allen as Prince Theon Greyjoy *Michiel Huisman as Daario Naharis *Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth *Tom Wlaschiha as Jaqen H'ghar *Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont Guest Starring *Max von Sydow as the Three-eyed raven *Kristian Nairn as Hodor *Richard E. Grant as Izembaro *Essie Davis as Lady Crane *Pilou Asbæk as King Euron Greyjoy *Gemma Whelan as Princess Yara Greyjoy *Ben Crompton as Eddison Tollett *Ellie Kendrick as Meera Reed *Faye Marsay as the Waif *Jacob Anderson as Grey Worm *Michael Feast as Aeron Greyjoy *Kae Alexander as Leaf *Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne *Darrell D'Silva as an Ironborn *Kevin Eldon as the actor playing Eddard Stark *Leigh Gill as Bobono *Eline Powell as Bianca *Rob Callender as the actor playing Joffrey Baratheon *Eva Butterly *Vladimir Furdik as the Night King *Ania Bukstein as Kinvara *Gerald Lepkowski as Zanrush *Annette Tierney as Old Nan *Sam Coleman as young Hodor *Wayne Foskett as Lord Rickard Stark *Sebastian Croft as Eddard Stark *Matteo Elezi as Benjen Stark *Fergus Leathem as Ser Rodrik Cassel *Kate Anthony as a Braavosi woman *Sally Mortemore as a Braavosi woman *Michael Hooley as a Night's Watch man *Ruairí Heading as a Night's Watch man *Robert Render *James Lecky *Glen Barry as a mummer ("background panel") *Brendan O'Rourke as a mummer ("the boar") *Ross Anderson-Doherty as a mummer ("background panel") *Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir as a musician *Ragnar Þórhallsson as a musician *Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson as a musician *Brynjar Leifsson as a musician *Kristján Páll Kristjánsson as a musician Cast notes *17 of 27 starring cast members appear in this episode. *Starring cast members Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell), Indira Varma (Ellaria Sand), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Bolton), Jonathan Pryce (High Sparrow), Dean-Charles Chapman (Tommen Baratheon), Jerome Flynn (Bronn), and Hannah Murray (Gilly) are not credited and do not appear in this episode. Notes *The title of this episode is revealed to be a reference to the last stand at the door to the cave in the final scene. *Dorne does not appear in this episode. King's Landing and its subplots do not appear in this episode (including House Lannister and House Tyrell). Ramsay Bolton in Winterfell and the Tully/Frey subplot do not appear, though they are discussed. Samwell Tarly and Gilly on the way to Oldtown do not appear in this episode. *This is only the sixth episode in the TV series in which King's Landing is not featured in any scene. The previous five were Season 1's "The Kingsroad" (because King Robert and Cersei were with the Starks on the road and had not yet reached the city), Season 3's "The Rains of Castamere" (which focused mostly on the Red Wedding), Season 4's "The Watchers on the Wall" (which focused entirely on the Battle of Castle Black), Season 5's "Kill the Boy" (which didn't feature any scene in the Seven Kingdoms not counting the North), and "The Dance of Dragons". *This episode marks the first time the Night King is referred to by name. *In the books, Lady Crane is called Lady Stork. *The HBO official Viewer's Guide confirms that the play performed by the theatre troupe is "The Bloody Hand" like in the novels. However, in the novels its focus is on Tyrion Lannister more than Ned Stark.Viewer's Guide: Lady Crane *The Viewer's Guide also confirms that the Drowned Man conducting the kingsmoot is Aeron Greyjoy, a.k.a. "Damphair", brother of Balon and Euron.Viewer's Guide: Aeron Damphair *Jaqen H'ghar's story about how the Faceless Men originated is from the novels, but may include some differences. As he says, they started out as a death cult among the slaves of Old Valyria, worked to death in the vast mines to feed their masters' ever-expanding hunger for resources. Over time, they came to see death as a "gift" to release fellow slaves from their hellish suffering - and in time, honed their skills to give "the gift" to the slave-masters too. Where Jaqen's story diverges is when he says that Braavos was "founded" by the Faceless Men - in the novels it was not. For that matter, the Season 5 Blu-ray set's animated featurette on "Braavos (Histories & Lore)" explained that Braavos was founded when a slave uprising took control of a slave transport fleet, killed all the slave-masters on board, then sailed to the far northwest corner of Essos where the slavers wouldn't find them. In the novels, the Faceless Men came to Braavos at some later point - though they did help the city grow and flourish, by secretly killing its political enemies across the Free Cities. *While he doesn't directly appear, this episode starts re-introducing Brynden "The Blackfish" Tully, not seen since the Red Wedding at the end of Season 3. In the TV version, he happened to be outside of the main hall when the betrayal began, and thus managed to fight his way out of the ambush in the camps outside. In the Season 3 finale, even Roose Bolton expressed his concern at Ser Brynden escaping their grasp. In the novels, Brynden actually never came to the Red Wedding at all - Robb left him behind at Riverrun to command the Tully armies and guard their southern flank while he tried to kick the Greyjoys out of the North. The TV series condensed this so that Robb was going to try to return south to make a strike at Casterly Rock, so Brynden just came with him - also viewers may have suspected the coming ambush if some characters weren't present. Either way the end result seemed to generally be the same - alone of Robb's lieutenants, Brynden was the only one that still remained alive and free. Afterwards the situation in the Riverlands was left unclarified in subsequent seasons. In the books, the main Frey army moved south to lay siege to Riverrun and has been encamped around it ever since. **Littlefinger states in this episode that Brynden re-gathered the Tully forces to "retake" Riverrun. It is unclear what was meant to happen off-screen in the TV version, given that in the novels Brynden was always at Riverrun and it never fell to outside attack. It's possible that it initially fell to some advanced Frey raiding forces (because the Tully garrison didn't know about the betrayal), but then Brynden regrouped the main Tully army which was still in the field, then retook it, but then the main Frey army came and surrounded them, etc. Either that or the TV writers wanted to somehow address the fact that no one mentioned in the past two seasons that Riverrun was still left unconquered. **Sansa makes no attempt to contact Brynden in the novels, though she also hasn't met Brienne of Tarth in the novels either. In the books, Brienne stayed in the Riverlands searching for the Stark girls and never went to the North (though these storyline are being adapted at an uneven pace). Thus sending Brienne back to Riverrun to try to open a line of communication with their Tully allies puts Brienne back onto her subplot from the books, and is a fairly plausible reason for her to go back south within the context of the TV show. **Most of the North's armies were destroyed in the massacre at the Red Wedding. Their Riverlord allies, however, led by the Tullys, were not present at the massacre and thus in the novels their armies were not totally destroyed - but facing the brunt of the combined Lannister/Tyrell armies, with no natural defenses between them, and now with their Northern allies massacred, most of them simply surrendered rather than face annihilation. The Tully garrison under Brynden held out in spite of them, but he only had about 200 men left under his command (more than enough to defend the castle, but not keeping on extra mouths to feed during the siege). Thus on the one hand, more of the Tully armies survived than the Stark armies (which were totally destroyed), and it is true that Sansa would try to at least contact them. On the other hand, the Tully forces are now totally surrounded by the main armies of the Lannisters, Tyrells, and Freys, and not in much of a position to help anyone. Of course, as the showrunners point out in the "Inside the Episode" featurette, the fact that Sansa didn't kill Littlefinger because she hopes to ally with his large Vale army in the future is meant to indicate that she isn't just thinking about the immediate battle in front of them, but is thinking several steps ahead to how they're going to face the Lannisters to the south, on a scale of years. **Sansa calls Brynden Tully her "uncle" - he is actually her great-uncle, as he is her mother Catelyn's uncle. This isn't incongruous, as even Joffrey would refer to his great-uncle Kevan Lannister as "uncle Kevan" in clipped fashion. **Davos says that Brynden Tully is a hero and legend. Brynden became a war hero famous across Westeros for his actions in the War of the Ninepenny Kings, the big war fought a generation before Robert's Rebellion. In that war, in which he fought alongside Barristan Selmy, Brynden acquitted himself valiantly as a warrior but even moreso as a military commander - even the young Jaime Lannister was in awe when he first met Brynden. In-universe, if anyone could regroup the scattered remnants of the Tully armies to give the Lannisters and Freys this much trouble, it would be the Blackfish. *It is implausible that Littlefinger could meet with Sansa Stark in Mole's Town in this episode. Sansa stayed with Littlefinger in the Vale in the novels, and never even met Ramsay Bolton - thus Littlefinger riding to within sight of the Wall itself to meet with her like this never happened in the books and is the result of heavy story condensations. **Critics in Season 2 introduced the popular joke that Littlefinger must have a "jetpack" to quickly meet with characters in King's Landing, Storm's End, and at Harrenhal all within a few episodes of each other. Actually, a small riding party can move much faster than a large army, these three locations are not ridiculously far apart, and at that point in the war, the Lannisters controlled all of the major highways in the region (specifically the Kingsroad), and it was still pleasant autumn weather - thus a single rider could plausibly have moved around between those locations with relative speed. **In this case, the distance between the Vale and the Wall is enormous - something like three times the distance between Storm's End and Harrenhal, and the highways are filling with snow now. Moreover, the Bolton forces are at Winterfell, directly in the middle of Littlefinger's overland path. Littlefinger said that the Vale's main army is camped at Moat Cailin - the choke point at the Neck where the Kingsroad crosses into the North. The other end of the Kingsroad is at Castle Black itself, and Mole's Town is just a few miles south of Castle Black along the Kingsroad. Winterfell, now the center of Ramsay Bolton's powerbase where his armies are massing is itself located near the Kingsroad, between these two points. Having a jetpack wouldn't address the fact that the Boltons block his path - he would need some kind of teleporter. **Consider that in the TV version, Littlefinger said the Vale should start gathering its army and heading north after his spies heard the news that Sansa Stark escaped Winterfell. Sansa escaped Winterfell in the first episode of Season 6, and reached Castle Black in the fourth episode (albeit she didn't have horses to ride until the second episode). Littlefinger was shown receiving news of Sansa's escape only in the preceding episode (four) - though these events might not be presented in synch, and he could have received the news around the same time as the premiere episode. Still, it inherently would have taken at least several days even for a messenger-raven to bring the news to Littlefinger in the Vale, then he would have to ride from the Vale to Moat Cailin, from Moat Cailin to Winterfell, then from Winterfell to Mole's Town in less time than it took Sansa and her companions to ride from near Winterfell to Castle Black. It isn't clear how much time passed between when Sansa arrived at Winterfell last episode and when Littlefinger arrives near it in this episode, but it would take at least weeks - and this is purely considering the time involved, not even factoring in how Littlefinger could avoid the Bolton armies controlling he center of the North. **The other unstated option is that Littlefinger may have arrived at the Wall by ship, at the eastern end at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, then ridden west to Mole's Town - apparently not riding to Castle Black itself due to fear of being recognized or attacked by some of the other characters there (Davos wouldn't trust Littlefinger). This is somewhat more plausible, the Boltons don't have any strength at sea to stop travel by ship, but his ship might still need jets attached to travel the entire south-to-north length of "the North" to get to the Wall. *Daenerys Targaryen asks Jorah Mormont if there is a cure for Greyscale and he says he doesn't know, or how long it will take to kill him. Greyscale actually kills slowly and can take years to die from. People can in fact be cured of Greyscale, case in point Shireen Baratheon was cured, though her scars remained. There isn't actually one "cure" however, it's just that if doctors and apothecaries desperately try dozens of potential remedies on very rare occasion they work, but no one has been reliably able to find one method. *This episode introduces Kinvara, a Red Priestess who seems to be a high-ranking leader, or perhaps the leader of the Lord of Light religion. If she exists in the books continuity she hasn't been introduced yet. **Practically nothing has been revealed in the five current novels about the hierarchical organization of the Lord of Light religion, or its organizational history - perhaps hinting that this will be a plot point later. What is known is that the major city-states of the Free Cities do each have their own local High Priest, but the interrelationships between the different High Priests over large areas are unknown. The High Priest in Volantis in the novels is a man named Benerro, but it is unclear how he interacts with the High Priest in Myr, etc. If there actually is some ruling body of the religion in Asshai or somewhere else, its existence hasn't even been hinted at. Even in the World of Ice and Fire sourcebook (2014), the only vague new detail about the Lord of Light religion is that it started becoming increasingly popular about one hundred years before the beginning of the main narrative. **Note that the actress cast to play Kinvara is unusually young to play one of the high ranking leaders of an entire religion: Israeli actress Ania Bukstein (Kinvara) was in fact only 33 years old when she filmed for Season 6 - and is six years younger than Carice van Houten (Melisandre). The current novels have hinted that Melisandre is far older than she actually appears, however, and now the Season 6 premiere has confirmed that she casts a magical glamor over herself to give an appearance of youth when she is truly several centuries old. Thus Kinvara is probably using a magical glamor of youth as well - and it seems fitting that an even more powerful priestess than Melisandre would be able to sustain a magical glamor of an even more youthful appearance. *Tyrion Lannister's line to Varys when suggesting they meet with Kinvara, "Who said anything about him?" is an in-universe callback to the Season 5 premiere, when Varys urged Tyrion to come with him to meet Daenerys Targaryen. *Kinvara demonstrates that she knows how Varys was castrated, a story which he recounted in Season 3 episode 4, "And Now His Watch is Ended". A Sorcerer cut off his genitals and burned them in a fire to commune with some supernatural force or demon, as a voice answered from the flames. Varys stated that while the incident still haunts him, what he remembers most isn't the knife or the pain, but the utter horror at some otherworldly voice answering from the fire. As he explained, for this reason he hates all who claim to wield Magic - which is why he is suspicious of Kinvara. In this episode, Kinvara says that the man who castrated him was naught but "a second-rate sorcerer" dabbling in the magical arts. **Kinvara also says she knows that Tyrion heard a sermon from another Red Priestess claiming that Daenerys is the Lord's Chosen - which occurred back in Season 5's "High Sparrow". Tyrion sat on the other side of a market square listening and making mocking commentary on her claims, at which she turned to glare at him - despite being too far away for a normal person to hear him. In the books * The episode is adapted from the following chapter of A Storm of Swords: ** Chapter 20, Catelyn III: Robb is certain that killing Rickard will turn the Karstarks against him. * The episode is adapted from the following chapters of A Feast for Crows: ** Chapter 19, The Drowned Man: The Kingsmoot takes place under Aeron Greyjoy's guidance. Asha claims the Crown of Salt and Rock and obtains support. Euron interrupts the kingsmoot and lays his own claim to the throne, suggesting a plan to bind dragons to conquer the Seven Kingdoms. He wins the acclaim of most of the ironborn present and then crowned King of the Iron Islands. ** Chapter 29, The Reaver: Euron reveals his plan to marry Daenerys. * The episode is adapted from the following chapters of A Dance with Dragons: ** Chapter 26, The Wayward Bride: Asha has fled the Iron Islands. ** Chapter 27, Tyrion VII: a Volantene Red Priest preaches that Daenerys is Azor Ahai. ** Chapter 35, Jon VII: The Mormonts, Cerwyns, Glovers, Hornwoods and other Northern houses join Stannis in his campaign against the Boltons. * The episode is adapted from the following chapter of The Winds of Winter: ** Mercy: Arya observes the actors and actresses in a play called "The Bloody Hand". * The remaining material appears to be based on what will come in the sixth novel, The Winds of Winter, particularly the storyline of Bran Stark. 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